The present invention relates to a front wheel of a stroller, and particularly to one which is provided with a direction limiting means so that the direction the wheel is moving in can be limited to one perpendicular to the front of the stroller.
Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, a conventional stroller front wheel with direction limiting structure includes a connecting member 20, a pivotal rod 30, a slide block 50, a connecting tube 40 and a front wheel part 60.
The connecting member 20 has an upper tube portion connected to the front support rod 10 of the stroller. The pivotal rod 30 is passed through both the connecting member 20 and the connecting tube 40, which is connected to the axle of the wheel part 60, thus, the direction the front wheel 60 moves in can be changed. The connecting member 20 further has a guide rail 201, and the connecting tube 40 has a guide rail 401 aligned with the guide rail 201. The slide block 50 is movably disposed between the guide rails 201 and 401.
When the slide block 50 is moved upwards along the guide rails 201 and 401 to stay away from the guide rail 401, the front wheel can move along in any direction. When the user wants to limit the direction the front wheel moves in to one perpendicular to the front of the stroller, he or she has to move the slide block 50 downwards to a locking position where a part of same to stay between the rail 201 and the rest between the rail 401.
However, the conventional stroller front wheel is found to have a drawback that it has to be moved to make the guide rail 201 align with the guide rail 401 otherwise the slide block 50 can""t be moved to the locking position, i.e. the stroller wheel can""t be used very easily.
Therefore, it is a main object of the present invention to provide a stroller front wheel with a direction limiting means which can be used relatively easily.
The direction limiting means of a stroller front wheel of the present invention includes a control lever and an elastic member. The control lever is pivoted to a connecting block supporting the axle of the wheel, and has a front pointed end and an engaging part sticking up on the other end.
The elastic member is attached to the connecting block from a lower end, and has an upper convex part and an intermediate concave part.
An engaging gap is provided on the rear part of the outer side of a support rod of the stroller; the connecting block has a sticking-up pivotal rod part passing through the support rod. Thus, the control lever can be pivoted between an unlocking position where the pointed end stays above the upper convex part of the elastic member for the engaging part of the control lever to stay away from the engaging gap and a locking position where the pointed end is on the intermediate concave part for the engaging part of the control lever to abut a lower edge of the support rod. The elastic member will bias the pointed end of the control lever further down in the locking position when the direction the wheel moves in changes for the engaging part to face the engaging gap, making the engaging part move into the engaging gap to prevent the direction of the wheel from changing.
So, the user doesn""t have to first move the wheel for the engaging part to face the engaging gap for making the direction limiting structure function, i.e. he or she only has to move the pointed end onto the intermediate concave part effortlessly, and the engaging part will automatically engage the engaging gap in the course of the user pushing the stroller along.